|
I've been looking for a thread like this because I need some advice. Apologies in advance if this is a bit long winded or confusing. I'm a engineer at a semi-small tv station in central CA. This year will be my 16th in the industry (6 in news, 10 as a engineer/master control operator). For a while I've been toying with the idea of going back to school and either finishing my degree in Communications or starting over with one in computer security. But over the last couple of months I started to realize that I probably should focus on the field I'm in. Last year, my semi-supervisor left to go to another station and I got to pick up the slack until a new person was hired. Now that he is here, I'm still the guy that my boss and the stations GM go to when things need to get done. The new guy ... he is kind of my assistant as opposed to co-worker, which is odd since he went to school for this kind of thing and I haven't. All of my knowledge is from on the job training. I'm slowly starting to get a handle on my expanded responsibilities by being proactive in figuring out stuff, trying new things, and attempting to have some sort of organization. My boss has noticed and a couple weeks ago he brought up the idea that he might have me start doing the work schedules for our department. That along with me taking over as the departments shop steward means that I'll be the second person in line responsibility wise. I'm thinking that if all that happens and I'm still here in a year or so I'm going to ask for a title/wage bump. It's not just my boss that has noticed either. I'm going to a conference in April (NAB) that my boss is also going to. The stations GM didn't feel comfortable with both of us being gone at the same time so for a day or two I wasn't allowed to go. Things are all sorted now, but it was kind of surprising that other people value my experience. But I don't think I want to be here anymore. I like my coworkers, the environment is pretty good, I'm paid crazy good compared to the rest of the station. The issue is that I'm either going to hit or have hit the ceiling at the station/company. Barring anything major, my boss is never going to leave and I doubt that they would even consider promoting me into his spot. So at this conference I'm going to be trying to make connections like crazy. I'm going to shadow my friend who is also going and try to make some friends with his new company. I don't think anything will come out of the trip but you never know. I'm also starting to use LinkedIn as well but I'm still working on getting that cleaned up. At this point I'm thinking that eventually I'll move up to management at another station, but the idea is kind of terrifying to me. I've never really supervised anyone. I've trained half the people in my department but actually being in charge of a department is kind of crazy to me. But I don't want to be like some people I know in the business that have been at the same station for 25 years. The idea of working in the same room for that long seems depressing. I guess what I'm wanting to know is how do I get comfortable managing people? Should I be taking some business courses at the community college to kind of prep myself for doing budgets? Should I talk to my boss about taking on even more responsibilities?
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2013 00:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 04:12 |
|
|
Sorry it took a couple days to get back to you. I really don't do much outside of work that involves any kind of leadership, unless being on my HOA board counts. The semi-funny thing is that I used to be a decent leader, about ten years ago I was a newscast director. I was the person that was responsible for the entire newscast while it was on air. As for now, other being the person that has shift trained about half the people in my department and kind of being the semi on-call person that help people with various problems I really don't have my leadership responsibilities anymore.But I have been told by several people that they come to me when things need to get done rather than my boss.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2013 23:00
|
|
|
I'm a 38 year old in a semi-specialized field that is looking to move up the chain. I'm a broadcast engineer at the county tv station. They hired me to upgrade and expand the facility and operations. Since I'm on the last step of the upgrade, I'm probably not going to have much to do in about a year, probably less. I've been working in tv for almost my entire adult life (17 years) and it is something I think I'm good at. One of the reasons I took this job is it checked off one of the boxes I assume that HR/management like, I've done a major upgrade to our facility and once I'm done will have set up the county to broadcast live meetings from two remote locations. While I could stay at the county forever, I don't like being bored or having nothing to do. I could start to cross train a bit with the county communications department and learn fiber-optics, microwave stuff, etc., but I'm not sure how much that would help. Staying with the county for a couple more years would have the advantage of making more money since I'm not maxed out yet. This year I'll probably make $65k with OT, after four more years I'll max out at $70k or so. I'm sure if I asked and did the paperwork I could make more since I'm the only person with this job title in county government (8k people). What I would like to move up to would be assistant-chief engineer someplace, then be a chief engineer at an affiliate station someplace. My old boss has made no secret about wanting me to come back as an assistant chief, but I'm thinking that might be a bad idea. Going back to the same place I worked at for eight years and now being a semi-boss over the people that helped train me would be odd to say the least. While I think I could do the job, I think my lack of formal education might hold me back. I have most of a communications degree, I think six classes short. I've done a bit of research and there really aren't any schools to teach this kind of thing except as a associates degree. I'm not sure if having a degree would be a big deal, of the six or so chiefs I've known none have a degree. I've been meaning to get some certifications, both computer and broadcast type stuff, but have run out of motivation to do much. Should I take a couple classes in business so that I can learn management type stuff? What should my next steps be?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 4, 2014 22:53
|
|
|
SuperSpiff posted:Work in broadcast engineering here, but on the MSO side. If you're not opposed to moving, I would highly recommend considering taking a look at transferring to working either a) at a headend somewhere or b) working at a national channel. Doing facility/operations expansions is a big plus to folks and with the Comcast/TWC and AT&T/DTV mergers (possibly) on the horizon, it'd be a good time to try and sell yourself. While you may take a title reduction, I wouldn't doubt that you'd make the same/more and have more room for advancement. Thanks for the advice. I'm not opposed to taking a title reduction, I just would like to move towards a position that is more long term planning big picture kind of thing. I'm not opposed to moving anyplace, in fact I really do need to leave where I'm at for semi-health reasons. I'm just to the north of Los Angeles so moving there would be cool. But I do have two former co-workers at ESPN so maybe I'll put a word in their ear. It would be nice to get back to working with professionals. The two guys I work with now think saying oval office is acceptable and do stupid poo poo with the county vehicles and equipment that just rubs me the wrong way.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2014 21:45
|
|